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to kick against the goads. For the more you multiply the punishments, by so much for the martyr and all-praised maiden the crowns, even unwillingly you would increase, and the brighter the prizes of victory, even not wanting to, you would procure. But for yourself you multiply the shames, being defeated in each struggle and assault, and falling, and being overthrown on your back, and you heap up for your own all-wicked head more and endless torments, and the fiery, unquenchable coals upon your all-wicked head. 15. But it comes to me to wonder also at the father of the blessed one according to the flesh, whose way was inhuman and bestial, alien to pious sentiment according to the spirit, and far from a fatherly disposition. Truly, O pitiless father, you have surpassed even the irrational wild beasts in cruelty and 96.801 inhumanity. For they, when they see their offspring being harmed by someone, fight for them even to the death; but you, seeing your own and only-begotten daughter’s womanly milk-bearing members being cut off by swords unsparingly as in a butcher's shop, did not even feel shame at the outrage to nature, nor were you moved by so many blows, being stony-hearted and senseless. But why do we wonder, brothers, at those who are drunk with the error of impiety, and possessed by the madness of Satan? For just as the gloriously triumphant martyrs, possessed by the divine Spirit through their love for Christ, having conquered and risen above nature, have become supernatural, so indeed also the persecutors of Christ and of these, being filled with the evil spirit, and having enslaved themselves to the apostate power, they themselves also slid and fell outside of nature, not to something better, but to something worse. And just as those were exalted above the human condition, so also these were submerged below it, and have become like the man-slaying demons; and very rightly so. For those who come to Christ become imitators of Christ through the same virtue; but those who have yoked themselves to the devil’s yoke, become indeed similar and equal to him. But let us see what again the adversary and opponent devises and contrives through his own agents against the revered and chaste Virgin. 16. For seeing that she bravely bears and endures the torments of the body, he devises for her soul an unbearable torment, and one worthy of shame, as he thinks. And it is truly such, and more grievous than the former ones. But to suffer for Christ, even if it seems to have something shameful and unseemly, is nevertheless more revered and more graceful and more decent than any adornment. For the governor, he says, commands that she be paraded naked through that entire surrounding region, and be flogged with unbearable blows. But you know well, beloved, how much shame and modesty this matter brings to virgins, and especially to ones like this holy maiden, whom not even the sun, so to speak, had been able to enjoy to its fill before. And he forced her to be led around not only one marketplace and square, or a second one, but also to pass through districts, and towns, and townships. For, he says, that entire surrounding region. Truly, this trial is more grievous and more burdensome for modest and revered maidens than any burning and the pain of scourges. But nevertheless she endured even this shame for the sake of her love and affection for Christ, who for our sake endured a cross, despising the shame. For the virgin, having already stripped off the old man with his passions, among which such shame of clothing exists, for this reason did not consider it to be unseemly; but just as the first-formed in paradise before the passions of sin were naked, and not

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κέντρα λακτίζειν. Ὅσῳ γὰρ πληθύνεις τὰς τιμωρίας, τοσοῦτον τῇ μὲν μάρτυρι καὶ πανευφήμῳ νεάνιδι τοὺς στεφάνους, καὶ ἄκων αὐξήσειας, καὶ λαμπρότερα τὰ νικητήρια βραβεῖα, καὶ μὴ βουλόμενος προξενήσειας. Σαυτῷ δὲ τὰς αἰσχύνας πληθύνεις, καθ' ἑκάστην πάλην καὶ προσβολὴν ἡττώμενος, καὶ πίπτων, καὶ ὕπτιος ἀνατρεπόμενος, πλείονας δὲ καὶ τὰς ἀτελευτήτους κολάσεις, καὶ τοὺς φλογιστικοὺς ἀσβέστους ἄνθρακας τῇ παγκακίστῳ σῇ ἐπισωρεύεις κεφαλῇ. ιεʹ. Ἀλλά μοι καὶ τοῦ τῆς μακαρίας κατὰ μὲν σάρκα γεννήτορος ἀλλότριον τοῦ εὐσεβοῦς κατὰ πνεῦμα φρονήματος τὸ ἀπάνθρωπον καὶ ἐκτεθηριωμένον τοῦ τρόπου, καὶ πόῤῥω τῆς πατρικῆς διαθέσεως, θαυμάζειν ἐπέρχεται. Ὄντως καὶ αὐτὰ τὰ ἄλογα θηρία ἄσπλαγχνε πάτερ, τῇ ὠμότητι καὶ 96.801 τῇ ἀπανθρωπίᾳ ὑπερήλασας. Ἐκεῖνα γὰρ τὰ ἔγγονα αὐτῶν ὑφ' ὅτου θεωροῦνται βλαπτόμενα, μέχρι θανάτου αὐτῶν ὑπερμάχονται· σὺ δὲ τὸ ἴδιον καὶ μονογενὲς θυγάτριον ὡς ἐν μακέλλῳ ἀφειδῶς τὰ γυναικεῖα γαλακτοφόρα μέλη ξίφεσιν θεώμενος ἐκκοπτόμενα, οὐδὲ κἂν τὴν ὕβριν ᾐδέσθης τῆς φύσεως, οὐδὲ πρὸς τὰς τοσαύτας πληγὰς ἐκάμφθης, ὡς τὴν καρδίαν λιθώδης τε καὶ ἀναίσθητος. Ἀλλὰ τί θαυμάζομεν, ἀδελφοὶ, τοὺς τῇ πλάνῃ τῆς ἀσεβείας μεθύοντας, καὶ τῇ τοῦ Σατανᾷ μανίᾳ ἐκβεβακχευμένους; Ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ καλλίνικοι μάρτυρες τῷ περὶ Χριστὸν φίλτρῳ τῷ θείῳ γενόμενοι κάτοχοι Πνεύματι, τὴν φύσιν νικήσαντες καὶ ὑπεραναβάντες, ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ φύσιν γεγόνασιν, οὕτω δὴ καὶ οἱ τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ τούτων διῶκται, τοῦ πονηροῦ πλήρεις χρηματίζοντες πνεύματος, καὶ τῇ ἀποστατικῇ ἑαυτοὺς δυνάμει καταδουλώσαντες, ἔξω καὶ αὐτοὶ τῆς φύσεως, οὐκ εἰς κρεῖττον, ἀλλ' εἰς τὸ χεῖρον ἀπώλισθον, καὶ ἐξέπεσον. Καὶ ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνοι ἄνω τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ὑπερυψώθησαν καταστάσεως, τοσοῦτοι καὶ οὗτοι κατωτέρω ταύτης κατεκλύσθησαν, καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρωποκτόνοις γεγόνασιν δαίμοσιν ὅμοιοι· καὶ μάλα εἰκότως. Οἱ γὰρ Χριστῷ προσερχόμενοι, Χριστοῦ μιμηταὶ διὰ τῆς αὐτῆς ἀρετῆς καθίστανται· οἱ δὲ τῷ τοῦ διαβόλου ζυγῷ ἑαυτοὺς ὑποζεύξαντες, ἐκείνῳ δήπουθεν γίνονται παρεμφερεῖς καὶ ἐφάμιλλοι. Ἀλλ' ἴδωμεν τί πάλιν ὁ ἀντίδικος καὶ ἀντίπαλος διὰ τῶν ἰδίων ὑπασπιστῶν κατὰ τῆς σεμνῆς καὶ σώφρονος Παρθένου ἐπινοεῖ, καὶ τεκταίνεται. ιϛʹ. Ἰδὼν γὰρ ὅτι τὰς τοῦ σώματος αἰκίας ἀνδρείως ὑποφέρει τε καὶ ὑφίσταται, τῇ ψυχῇ βάσανον ἐπιτηδεύει ἀφόρητον, καὶ αἰσχύνης ἄξιον, ὡς οἴεται. Καὶ ἔστιν ὡς ἀληθῶς τοιαύτη, καὶ τῶν προτέρων χαλεπωτέρα. Ἀλλὰ διὰ Χριστὸν πάσχειν, κἄν τι δοκεῖ ἐπονείδιστον ἔχειν καὶ ἄσχημον, πλὴν ἀλλὰ παντὸς καλλωπίσματός ἐστιν σεμνότερόν τε καὶ εὐσχημονέστερον, καὶ κοσμιώτερον. Κελεύει γὰρ, φησὶν, ὁ ἡγεμὼν γυμνὴν πομπευθῆναι αὐτὴν πᾶσαν τὴν περίχωρον ἐκείνην, καὶ πληγαῖς ἀφορήτοις μαστίζεσθαι. Ἴστε δὲ πάντως, ἀγαπητοὶ, ὅσην τὸ πρᾶγμα φέρει ταῖς παρθένοις αἰσχύνην καὶ αἰδὼ, καὶ μάλιστα ταῖς κατὰ τὴν ὁσίαν ταύτην κόρην, ἧς οὐδὲ ἥλιος εἰς κόρον, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ἀπολαῦσαι δεδύνηται πρότερον. Καὶ οὐ μόνον μίαν ἀγορὰν καὶ πλατεῖαν, ἢ δευτέραν περιάγειν ἠνάγκαζεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ χωρία, καὶ ἄστεα, καὶ δήμους ἀμείβουσαν. Πᾶσαν γὰρ, φησὶν, τὴν περίχωρον ἐκείνην. Ὄντως πάσης καύσεως καὶ μαστίγων ὀδύνης, οὗτος ὁ πειρασμὸς ταῖς αἰσχυντηλαῖς καὶ σεμναῖς κόραις, χαλεπώτερός τε καὶ ἐπαχθέστερος. Ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ ταύτην τὴν αἰσχύνην ὑπέμεινεν διὰ τὸ πρὸς Χριστὸν φίλτρον καὶ ἔρωτα, ὃς δι' ἡμᾶς σταυρὸν ὑπέμεινεν, αἰσχύνης καταφρονήσας. Τὸν γὰρ παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον σὺν τοῖς παθήμασιν, ὧν καὶ ἡ τοιαύτη αἰσχύνη ἐνυπάρχει τῆς ἐσθῆτος, ἡ παρθένος προεκδύσασα, διὰ τοῦτο οὐδὲ ἀσχημονεῖν ἐλογίζετο· ἀλλ' ὥσπερ οἱ πρωτόπλαστοι ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ πρὸ τῶν παθῶν τῆς ἁμαρτίας γυμνοὶ ἦσαν, καὶ οὐκ